GroGuru supplies precision soil and irrigation monitoring and management systems to the commercial agriculture industry. GroGuru is all about strategic irrigation management. We have a patented wireless underground system (WUGS) for soil monitoring that enables the permanent installation of soil moisture sensors. GroGuru leases hardware and sell a software as a service (SaaS) product marketed as GroGuru® InSites.
Tech
GroGuru
Meet GroGuru
GroGuru is all about strategic irrigation management. They help farmers make more money by increasing crop yield while, at the same time, more efficiently using water and other scarce resources like fertilizer, energy, and labor, in a sustainable way. GroGuru does soil monitoring using the GroGuru patented wireless underground system, GroGuru® WUGS, that enables the permanent installation of soil sensors in annual field crops like corn and soybeans, eliminating the need for annual installation and removal of sensors required by all competitive alternatives in the market. They also offer their software as a service, SaaS, GroGuru® InSites, as a stand-alone solution that works with third-party hardware. GroGuru adds data in the cloud, then uses machine learning or AI, and adds other data like weather forecasts, crop models, and the ‘as-applied data’ from the irrigation system, to create recommendations to farmers recommendations about when and how much to irrigate. The recommendations come through a simple, intuitive, farmer-friendly user interface that can be accessed on a smartphone, tablet, or computer. They typically sell through irrigation equipment and farm supply dealers to family farmers with farms ranging from 1,000 acres to over 50,000 acres. The GroGuru WUGS-enabled solution is a total game-changer for annual field crop farmers. The GroGuru software as a service (SaaS) provides a best-in-class decision support system for strategic irrigation management.
Why is your company the best option to solve the problem you're solving?
GroGuru WUGS enables the permanent installation of soil sensors even in annual field crops like corn and soybeans, which represent over 85% of the irrigated crop acreage in the US. Competitive alternatives require annual installation and removal which increase the total cost of ownership, decrease scalability, and provide a subset of data from underground needed for farmers to make optimal decisions. GroGuru InSites, our software as a service, or SaaS, is used with our own hardware and third-party hardware as a better decision support tool for farmers to make optimal irrigation decisions. We use machine learning in the cloud and add other data like crop models, localized weather forecasts, and the 'as-applied' data from the irrigation system to give farmers and agronomic consultants better decision support too. The information is provided via a simple, intuitive, farmer-friendly user interface that can be accessed on a smartphone, tablet or computer.
GroGuru
GroGuru is all about strategic irrigation management. They help farmers make more money by increasing crop yield while, at the same time, more efficiently using water and other scarce resources like fertilizer, energy, and labor, in a sustainable way.
What nuggets of info make you interesting? Why do people care about what you're doing?
We need to increase the food supply by 70% by the year 2050 just to keep pace with population growth, and we already use 70% of the world's freshwater supply for agriculture irrigation. Nothing is more strategic than access to fresh water and sufficient safe and nutritious food.
What else do you want us to know?
We have a team with the right business, technical and domain expertise to win in this market, which is expected to be a multi-billion market per year over time.
BEHIND THE COMPANY
CEO/Founder: Patrick Henry
What is your company's secret sauce?
We have four issued patents, and five patents pending. Issued patents include the fundamental technology for the GroGuru WUGS, our wireless underground system. We have also created machine learning algorithms that combine crop science and data used for decision support to farmers that are unique in the industry. The payback period for farmers is typically less than one growing season, and they can scale much more rapidly than possible with competitive alternatives.
What inspired you to start/run this company?
I grew up in my career in larger companies and felt I had the right stuff to be a CEO. This was in 2001. This is now my 4th tech startup, and I've had multiple exits including an IPO that led to a $1B valuation. GroGuru is the most exciting, dynamic, and literally life-changing company that I've run in my entire career.
What's the best entrepreneurial advice you've received?
Don't run out of money and don't quit.
What's the worst entrepreneurial advice you've received?
It will all work out.
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